Notice of staff changes to employees, October 1964

NOTICE TO EMPLOYEES
On the retirement of our General Foreman Mr W Cobbold on Friday 16th October 1964, the following new arrangements come into being as from Monday 19th October.

Mr Cobbold’s successor is Mr J Knight, who will assume the office of General Foreman as from the above date. It has been decided to depart from past procedure of having a Deputy Foreman as such, but in the case of holidays or sickness, Mr Ted Salmon will assume the duties of General Foreman for the period involved.

The development in a number of Departments necessitates the appointment of permanent supervisors and therefore the following personnel have been appointed to carry out this work in the respective Departments:-
Mr T Salmon – Slaughterhouse and Bacon Trimming Room.
Mr C Capon – Boning Dept (Sausage, Pie, Meat and Bacon for PrePack Dept).
Mr W Borley – Gutting Room (Pork Guts and Supplies for Sales Dept).

These supervisors will be responsible for the standard of workmanship, distribution of labour and smooth running of their respective Departments. Firm co-operation must be encouraged between inter-departments and transfer of labour should be referred to the General Foreman. The Bacon packing, smoke stoves, skin room, gut room, digester plant, curing cellar and baleing dept, will refer all queries to the General Foreman, Mr Knight.

Each Department will indent for their raw material requirement direct to the supervisor in charge of the respective department concerned, and any queries or difficulties should be referred to Mr Mewitt Production Manager.

K.C. CROOK
General Manager

27th March, 1974.

TO ALL SHAREHOLDERS OF ST. EDMUNDS BACON FACTORY LTD.

Dear Member,

For many years St. Edmunds Bacon Factory Ltd. has been under capitalised and your Management Committee, faced with a commitment for capital expenditure of about £100,000, recommends a merger with Eastern Counties Farmers Ltd. Earlier this week E.C.F., an integrated agricultural co-operative covering eight eastern counties between the Thames and the Wash, reported a turnover of £26 million and profits of £¾ million in 1973. These figures represented an increase of 50% in trade and more than 60% in profitability compared with the previous year.

In considering the means of overcoming our problems your Management Committee studied approaches from a number of commercial organisations. In the final analysis one of the vital considerations was that of maintaining farmer control and participation in our Society, which has been an agricultural co-operative since 1911. In addition, of course, ECF’s trading area includes one of the largest concentrations of pig producers in Europe. We were particularly impressed by the way in which ECF had applied sound commercial principles in solving their own difficulties in the late 1960s. Most particularly we noted their emphasis on professional management allied to the close involvement of members in policy making. Within three or four years ECF have become one of the most progressive and viable agricultural co-operatives in the country. ECF Managing Director (Mr. E. Thomas) and their Financial Director (Mr H. N. Piper) have been co-opted to our Management Committee, and ECF has given the extremely urgent financial assistance needed by guaranteeing the Society’s bank overdraft. ECF have made a formal offer for the exchange of its shares for those held by members in the Society and the Committee recommends your acceptance of the offer.

This preliminary statement is issued as members are entitled to information about the steps which the Management Committee are taking to ensure the continuation, prosperity and expansion of the business. Full details of this offer, together with notice of a special meeting of members to consider it, will be sent to you as soon as possible.